Chapter 834: Directional Clues
And directly under the chair in the living room, Lu Chuan discovered a series of irregular barefoot footprints.
Those should have been left when Lin Ting was being abused while sitting on the chair.
So, the barefoot footprints should belong to Lin Ting, whose footprints are the others?
The killer is unlikely to change slippers.
So the slipper footprints are most likely also left by Lin Ting, or by the man who occasionally stayed at Lin Ting’s place.
But the footprints with shoes are most likely the killer’s!
Apart from the footprints on the ground, there are also many fingerprints at the scene.
Lu Chuan didn’t have a UV light at hand just now, so he could only observe roughly; fingerprints were found on both the fruit knife and the chair.
Now, with the fluorescence light, it can be said that they are densely packed.
This case, judging by the victim’s living situation and the conditions at the scene, currently has two hypotheses.
The first is home invasion robbery and murder.
The victim’s home was rummaged through to an unrecognizable state, with many previous valuables looted, such as expensive watches, gold jewelry, and some jade artifacts.
Lu Chuan found a box in the living room, but the items inside were gone.
The drawers in the living room were all opened, and their contents were scattered on the floor. It’s now impossible to determine exactly what is missing, but these signs suggest a possibility of home invasion robbery followed by murder.
Of course, this possibility is not considered high by Lu Chuan, but it is possible.
Because if it were a robbery and murder, there would be no need for the perpetrator to transport the body from here and discard it in the Fen River.
Furthermore, the perpetrator could have just controlled the victim or killed her directly without the need for torture.
The victim, Lin Ting’s body, had multiple bruises, stab wounds from sharp objects, and larger contusions, as checked by Lu Chuan.
Moreover, in general cases of such robbery-murder, it’s usually one perpetrator, or sometimes two, but more than three is uncommon.
However, Lu Chuan found at the scene footprints of at least four outsiders.
So Lu Chuan believes the second possibility leading to Lin Ting’s murder is more likely.
That is a crime of passion.
Judging from the abuse inflicted, the perpetrator was acting out of revenge, making the possibility of murder very high.
Firstly, Lin Ting was unmarried and pregnant before marriage, so this child was either her boyfriend’s or someone else’s.
But from the situation of the toiletries in the bathroom, it is clear that Lin Ting’s boyfriend did not come to this house often.
So in Lu Chuan’s judgment, it’s highly possible that Lin Ting’s boyfriend was a married man.
This makes the possibility very high that Lin Ting underwent a late pregnancy termination and was tortured to death.
Of course, this is just Lu Chuan’s guess, and the specific situation will still require the results of the investigation.
The work on this side was quite tedious, taking over five hours to complete.
At the scene, Lu Chuan began to organize tasks, mobilizing all personnel to investigate everything related to Lin Ting.
At 9:30 the next day, all groups gathered, and a clear investigative result was achieved regarding the situation.
"Lin Ting, female, 26 years old, from Binzhou City, moved to Haizhou City last year. The house in the Golden Garden District is registered under her name."
"However, we found the original owner who sold the house and checked their transaction records; the payment was not made from Lin Ting’s account but from a man named Zhang Shaoyang."
"Zhang Shaoyang, male, 52 years old, a local of Haizhou City, owns a transportation and trade company."
"When Lin Ting first came to Haizhou City, she was a receptionist at this trade company, but she quit after a few months."
"Yesterday afternoon, we already visited Zhang Shaoyang’s company for investigation."
"According to Lin Ting’s colleagues, it seems Lin Ting was being kept by Zhang Shaoyang."
"Moreover, this was discovered by Zhang Shaoyang’s wife, and at the time, it caused quite a scene at the company with a fight breaking out. Later, Lin left the company."
This is the result of Wang Zhaokai’s investigation.
On the other hand, Chen Jiang’s side also made significant progress in the investigation.
"Our group reviewed the surveillance footage from the Golden Garden District over the past week and found that four days ago, Lin Ting appeared in the surveillance at the entrance, going out to buy groceries in the morning."
"Then, everyone see."
Chen Jiang played a piece of surveillance footage.
Four people surrounded Lin Ting as they walked into the district.
"Among them were two men and two women. The slightly plump woman on the left is Zhang Shaoyang’s wife, Li Guifen, and the woman next to her is her sister, Li Guifang."
"The two men accompanying them are Li Guifen’s cousins."
After this video ended, Chen Jiang played two more videos.
"After the four of them went into the district with Lin Ting, about an hour later, watch this video."
Two men came out of the district, leaving the surveillance range of the front gate.
Less than five minutes later, they appeared again in the surveillance.
However, this time, they were carrying a black suitcase.
"The suitcase was bought from a luggage shop to the right of the district’s main gate by the two men."
"The boss remembered them because these two bought the largest black suitcase in the shop without bargaining, paid and left."
"Everyone keep watching..."
Chen Jiang played the final piece of footage.
The four people reappeared together within the surveillance range at the front gate of the Golden Home District, but this time they were not surrounding Lin Ting; instead, they left the district pulling a wheeled suitcase.
"This was at 6:36 PM four days ago."
By this point, the case has actually become quite clear.
Lin Ting’s death is closely linked to these four individuals.
The situation on the Crime Scene Investigation side confirmed solid evidence of the crime.
Not to mention, the fingerprints collected last night underwent verification analysis, matching two prints to Li Guifen and Li Guifang.
Moreover, these two fingerprints were found on the ashtray of the coffee table in the living room and on the handle of the fruit knife under the chair.
"It can be confirmed that these four are the murderers of Lin Ting."
"I suggest we immediately issue arrest warrants for the four!"
The main difficulty of this case was identifying the deceased.
It wasn’t. Because the body was submerged in water for too long, facial features couldn’t be used for comparison.
In other aspects, such as fingerprints and DNA, Lu Chuan tried too, but no match was found in the system.
Fortunately, the clues from the hospital investigation eventually confirmed Lin Ting’s identity.
The arrests went smoothly.
Li Guifen and Li Guifang were arrested at home.
Their cousins put up more of a struggle.
Neither of them lived in Haizhou City, but in Binzhou City.
A week ago, they came to borrow money from Li Guifen.
They had just left to return to Binzhou yesterday.
But it wasn’t a big problem; Lu Chuan was familiar with the Binzhou Criminal Investigation Team. A phone call later, Wang Zhaokai was sent over, and by midnight, they were captured. By the early morning the next day, they were already in custody in the interrogation room of the Criminal Investigation Team.